Electric vehicles

FILE - In this Tuesday, April 16, 2019, file photo, Volkswagen unveils a concept electric SUV, the whimsically named ID. ROOMZZ during the Auto Shanghai 2019 show in Shanghai. Volkswagen says Friday, May 29, 2020, it will spend 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) to expand its presence in China's electric car industry in the biggest foreign investment announced since the country shut down to fight the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

BEIJING (AP) — Volkswagen is spending 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) to expand its presence in China’s electric car industry in the biggest foreign investment announced since the country's economy began to reopen following the coronavirus pandemic. Volkswagen AG said Friday it will buy control of...

FILE - In this April 15, 2018 file photo, the sun shines off the rear deck of a roadster on a Tesla dealer's lot in the south Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo. Tesla has picked Austin, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, as finalists for its new U.S. assembly plant, a person briefed on the matter said Friday, May 15, 2020. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

DETROIT (AP) — Tesla has picked Austin, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, as finalists for its new U.S. assembly plant, a person briefed on the matter said Friday. The person says company officials visited Tulsa in the past week and were shown two sites. It wasn’t clear if there were any other finalists...

Vehicles are seen parked at the Tesla car plant Monday, May 11, 2020, in Fremont, Calif. The parking lot was nearly full at Tesla's California electric car factory Monday, an indication that the company could be resuming production in defiance of an order from county health authorities. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

At the Fit4All Gym in Lebanon, Illinois, owner David Tate considers Elon Musk a huge ally in the fight against government coronavirus orders that Tate says are driving him into the poorhouse. Tate reopened his 250-member gym in defiance of state orders on Monday, the same day Musk restarted his...

A waiter carries beers for customers sitting on a terrace bar in Tarragona, Spain, Monday, May 11, 2020. Roughly half of 47 million Spaniards are stepping into a softer version of the country's coronavirus strict confinement and are beginning to socialize, shop in small establishments and enjoy a meal or a coffee in restaurants and bars with outdoor seating. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

NEW YORK (AP) — A top world health official Monday warned that countries are essentially driving blind in reopening their economies without setting up strong contact tracing to beat back flare-ups of the coronavirus. The warning came as France and Belgium emerged from lockdowns, the Netherlands...

FILE - In this April 25, 2018, file photo, attendees take photos of the E-SEED electric concept car during a press conference by Chinese automaker BYD at the China Auto Show in Beijing. China is promising more subsidies to shore up plunging electric car sales amid the coronavirus pandemic but set limits that exclude Tesla’s made-in-China model. Subsidies and tax breaks that were due to end this year will be extended by two years in response to “an accumulation of unfavorable factors” including the virus, the Finance Ministry said Thursday, April 23, 2020.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

BEIJING (AP) — China is promising more subsidies to shore up plunging electric car sales amid the coronavirus pandemic but set limits that exclude Tesla’s made-in-China model. Subsidies and tax breaks that were due to end this year will be extended by two years in response to “an accumulation of...

FILE - This Wednesday, March 18, 2020, file photo, shows a Tesla charging station for automobiles in Port Huron, Mich. Tesla's sales of its increasingly popular electric cars got off to a fast start in the year, even though the company had to slam the brakes along with other major automakers in March 2020 because of worldwide efforts to contain the worst pandemic in a century. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Tesla's sales of its increasingly popular electric cars got off to fast start this year, even though the company had to slam the brakes along with other major automakers last month because of worldwide efforts to contain the worst pandemic in a century. The Palo Alto,...

A worker completes an electric car ID.3 body at the assembly line during a press tour at the plant of the German manufacturer Volkswagen AG (VW) in Zwickau, eastern Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020. Volkswagen are completely converting the plant in Zwickau from 100 percent combustion engine to 100 percent electric. Around 100,000 electric models are to be produced in Zwickau as early as next year. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen said Tuesday it would close most of its European plants for two weeks due to uncertainty about demand for cars and supplies of parts amid the virus outbreak and said it wasn't possible to give a reliable outlook for this year's profits. The company said, however...

FILE - This June 1, 2019, file photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity, shows the rare desert wildflower Tiehm's buckwheat in the Silver Peak Range about 120 miles southeast of Reno, Nev. An Australian mining company says its pursuit of a huge lithium deposit in Nevada is critical to accelerating the manufacture of electric vehicles and reducing greenhouse gases. Opponents argue the mine can't be built without causing the extinction of the only native population of the rare desert wildflower known to exist in the world. (Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity via AP, File)

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The rare Tiehm's buckwheat stands less than a foot tall (30 centimeters) in Nevada's rocky high desert, its thin, leafless stems adorned with tiny yellow flowers in spring. To the Australian company that wants to mine lithium beneath the federal land where it grows, the perennial...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, saw profit slump in 2019 and turned in a loss for the fourth quarter, underlining the pressures on the auto industry from economic headwinds and the need to invest in electric cars to meet tougher European Union limits on greenhouse...

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2018, file photo, snow covers the perimeter of the General Motors' Lordstown plant, in Lordstown, Ohio. The Trump administration’s budget proposal scraps a loan program that could help an upstart electric vehicle company’s plans to reuse the now-closed General Motors factory in Lordstown, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

DETROIT (AP) — The Trump administration’s budget proposal scraps a loan program that could help an upstart electric vehicle company’s plans to reuse the now-closed General Motors factory in Lordstown, Ohio. In a summary of the budget for the coming fiscal year, the administration said Monday it...